Will I Ever Learn?

I'm pretty picky when it comes to my knitting. I just can't see investing all that time and effort into a project that I'm not going to love once it is completed. But, when I see that a project isn't working quite like I want, I tend to ignore that inner voice that is telling me that the project will not turn out.

After the Slip Stitch/Reverse Pinwheel Baby Blanket fiasco, one might think that I should have learned my lesson. I could save so much time (and heartache) if I would simply accept that if a project is not turning out how I would like, that I should simply rip it out and start over.

But no, I suffer from "let's just knit a few more rows and see how I like it," I see that my project isn't going right, but I'll invest more time into it to see if it magically improves. The more time I invest in the project, the more I decide to keep knitting on it to see if things improve, and the cycle continues. And yesterday, I did it again.

I cast on for a new project (ignoring the ones I have on the needles, actually finishing some projects might be a good New Year's goal for me), Encompass, a circle scarf designed by the Yarn Harlot. I decided to use a thinner yarn than the pattern called for, but made no other major changes. After finishing casting on, I looked at the stitches and my inner voice chimed in, "that's not going to be long enough, cast on another set of forty stitches." But, instead of heeding that inner voice, I decided to "knit a couple of rows to see how I like it."

So, I knit about ten rows and stopped to take a look and inner voice spoke up again, "It's too short, rip it out and cast on more stitches, like I told you before." And still, I decided, "Nah, I'll finish the first pattern repeat and see how I like it, its only seven more rows."

Seven rows later, I stopped and looked at the scarf, and inner voice said, "Well, look at that, it isn't getting any longer, RIP IT OUT AND START OVER!" At this point, it was getting late, so I figured I'd decide what to do in the morning (note: usually, late at night, taking a break from a project and getting some sleep would be a good idea, but I was iffy about this project from this morning on).

This morning, I picked up the project again. It had not magically grown overnight and was still to short. But what did I decide to do? Just knit a few more rows and see it I like it better. About three rows in, my inner voice was screaming at me, "START OVER, DUMBASS, START OVER!" I looked at the scarf, which I still felt was too short and decided to rib it out and cast on forty more stitches.

Seriously, I could have saved almost a full day's worth of knitting and had a much more productive inner dialog if I would have just listened to the inner voice right away. I should know by now, inner voice will prevail, if not today, tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, some day down the road, but it will prevail, the project will be frogged, and the sooner I accept that, the better.

Keeping Hands Warm

Between stitches on the various versions of the baby blankets that I've been working on, I have also completed a new pair of warm winter mittens. 

I chose the Jack-in-the-Box mittens from Knitting New Mittens and Gloves. The mittens have an normal top and an interior cuff. This allows you to have access to your fingers for things like unlocking the door, punching in the code on the garage door, and other tasks where you need some level of dexterity.

The bright pink button is to keep the top flap closed. I dug through my button box to find them. I had some super cute sheep buttons, that I was going to use, but they were a little big and I wanted to be able to button and unbutton with ease. Plus, I think it adds a nice splash of brightness to the mittens. I added some length to the cuffs, but otherwise knitted the pattern as written. 

The mittens were knit with Malabrigo Worsted yarn, a super soft, hand dyed merino wool. It is one of my favorite yarns to work with. The colorway is SFO Sky, a blend of whites, grays, and blacks. A little dreary perhaps, but a good universal, go with everything color that goes with my green winter coat and my red fleece coat.

The mittens have now been tested, in a very snowy Wisconsin December and have proven themselves to be cozy and warm while doing everything from driving to work to making snowballs. 

You Say Perfectionist Like It's a Bad Thing...

My needles have been clicking away on the Slip Stitch Baby Blanket, I was determined to get it finished in time for Christmas. Finally, I finished the slip stitch middle, and finished the top garter stitch border. I wasn't thrilled with the results, but I thought it might get better once the side borders were added. I started on the side border, *picked up the stitches, and knit a few rows. And I still didn't like it, so I ripped out the side border and tried again, and repeated from the * three more times. After being unhappy with the fourth side border, I came to a conclusion. I didn't like how this blanket turned out. 

The sensible part of me said, "Just finish it anyway, it's not for you, and there's a good chance you'll never see it again after it is given." 

Then that other, perfectionist voice spoke up, "You're going to set this knitting project loose on the world. If you don't like it, how can you expect the recipient to like it and want to use it."

The two voices continued to argue on:

"But you're almost finished with it."

"But it looks bad, and people will know that you made it."

"But it's almost finished."

"But it's ugly."

And on and on. Now, knowing myself as I do, it became clear that perfectionist voice was not going to shut up about it being a sub par project. And while sensible voice would whine about the extra work, and the probability that it wouldn't be finished in time for Christmas (admittedly not a big deal, seeing as the baby is not due until February). Eventually, I would rip out this blanket and make another one. 

Which I did. And surprisingly got it done in plenty of time (by which I mean a couple of days) for Christmas.                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

 Meet the Reverse Pinwheel Baby Blanket. I've done several circular blankets before, starting with about five stitches and increasing outward until you reach the desired size. But this one is done the opposite way, you cast on a bunch of stitches and decrease down to the middle.  In theory, less annoying, because every couple of rounds, you have less stitches instead of more. However, you don't have the same amount of control over the finished size. 
Admittedly, I would have liked it to be a little bit bigger, but 30 inches in diameter is a pretty good size for a baby blanket.


The pattern originally called for stockinette stitch, but I switched to garter. This yarn, Shine Sport by Knit Picks, knits into such a soft, smooshy fabric in garter stitch, that is perfect for a baby blanket. And, of course, the yarn can be machine washed and dried, which is good for anything made for small children.


My perfectionist voice managed to turn a so-so blanket into a better blanket. 

The Best Laid Plans

I have my knitting all planned out, I'm totally in love with my Farmer's Market Cardigan, and I'm making great progress on it. I've divided for the front and back and arm holes. It is mainly stockinette with some shaping right now, so it is fantastic tv knitting. I'm totally and completely content with the project.


So, of course, something has to go wrong, something that will stall my progress and wreck havoc with all of my plans. You know, something that looks a lot like this.



A broken knitting needle. Besides the interruption to my knitting, which is never appreciated, I also have the loss of a beautiful needle (it is hard to tell from the photo, but these needles are truly a work of art, in multicolored wood). Needless to say, my Farmer's Market Cardigan has been halted.


While this would seem like the ideal time to make some real progress on the Yggdrasil Throw, I decided that it was probably a good sign that I should get going on the Slip Stitch Baby Blanket, destined for my niece that is due in February. I would like to have it ready to go for Christmas. Plus, if I am being completely honest,  the Yggdrasil, I'm in the middle of a complicated cable section and isn't great tv or distraction knitting. It might be better to save it for this weekend, seeing as husband will be gone for deer hunting. That will be a great opportunity to turn off the tv, turn on the iPod and ignore the world while I focus on the cabled section of the Yggdrasil.

In the meantime, I've started the baby blanket and am already annoyed by the progress. It is a cute pattern, but the slip stitch design seems to take forever to make any progress. I'm also not too sure about the color combination. sometimes I think it is cute, and sometimes I just think it is okay. I do like how the pattern is turning out to be reversible, which is a plus with multicolored blankets. As an added plus, the Shine Worsted yarn is a pleasure to work with and is super soft and squishy. Hopefully I will finish in plenty of time, replace my broken needle and get back to my preplanned knitting.


I'm also making less than ideal progress on my pair of socks a month goal I set for myself in January. I did well through July, but then life got in the way. Since the start of August, I have finished a pair of socks for my oldest niece, and have just started on the leg of a second pair of toe-up socks. The pattern is Nagini, it Turtle Multi Essentials yarn (now known as Stroll sock yarn) from Knit Picks. Stroll is super soft, comes in great colors, gets better with wear, and is quickly becoming my favorite sock yarn. This pair will be pair number 9, completed in the 11th month, and somehow I don't see myself completing 3 more pairs by the end of the year.


Maybe I'll give the sock goal another try next year, or maybe I will try to set a different goal for the next year. I would also like to get some wash clothes made, 12 in a year would be doable. Or, I could start my mini-mitten advent calendar, which would work out to 2 mittens a month. I'll have to think about it some more and see.

Winter Knitting

For me there is something almost romantic about knitting in the fall and winter. It is what knitting was made for, it's what you think about when you think about knitting: cozy sweaters, warm mittens, hats, scarves, blankets, slippers, wool yarns, etc. Don't get me wrong, I love my light airy summertime knit tanks, and my cotton cardigans that help in the transitions between seasons, but fall and winter are the knitting seasons.



Farmer's Market Cardigan, Ignore the bottom part, that's my
version of a provisional cast on.



Thanks to  my stash inventory awhile back, I was aware of the glorious wool yarns I had waiting for me when this season struck. And once again, I have more projects planned than I could ever dream of having time to complete.

My main project on my needles is a perfect winter project: The Farmer's Market Cardigan. It's a hip length, long sleeved cardigan, with some beautiful cabling detail, knit up in a soft, squishy, and gorgeous tweedy rust colored yarn.

My second project on the needles has been neglected for some time now, but I figured this would be a great time to blow the dust off the pattern and start knitting again. The Yggdrasil Throw was originally meant to be a wedding gift for one of my oldest and dearest friends. I started it in plenty of time for the wedding, but the project went into hibernation when she called off the engagement last summer (no reason to work on a big heavy blanket in the summer if I don't have to, right?). It is an intricately cabled afghan with a tree of life motif, surrounded by Celtic style cables. I'm making it in an Orange-brown acrylic yarn, not my first choice for fibers, but it was a gift and needed to be easy care. While acrylic yarn isn't exactly a winter fiber, a big, heavy blanket is perfect to work on during those long, cold, snowy evenings. I have absolutely no idea what to do with the blankets once it is finished, but like any project, it deserves to be completed.

Next on deck, and needing to be started sooner, rather than later, is the Slip-Stitch Baby blanket. This is not really either a winter project or a winter fiber (it's in a cotton/model blend, easy care and so soft) but needs to be completed before the birth of my niece in February.

After that, I have a long, long list of projects ranging from mittens to sweaters in a variety of beautiful, squishy yarns. There can't be many better ways to pass cold winter's evenings than with a warm pile of wool yarn.

The Wonders of Felting

Non-knitters may not be familiar with the term felting, but anyone who has even thrown a wool sweater in the washing machine and had it come sized to fit a small dog, is familiar with the concept.  Being familiar with the concept, people may wonder why any knitter would purposely do that to their work. However, felting is a great method to turn something that looks like this:

Into something much more useful, like this:












Felting also creates a more sturdy fabric, making it perfect for things like slippers. (Kindly ignore the leaf pieces on the slippers, I wore them outside a couple times while chasing after the dog in the backyard)


Felting is a process that can be done with most animal fibers, like wool. The secret is that the shaft of the animal fibers are covered with little scales. When exposed to heat, these scales tend to start to stick out. Fiction with make the scales from several fibers start to stick together, eventually forming a felted material. 


In addition to the shrinking wool sweater, another commonly experienced example of this would be the matted hair that you sometimes find on animals, or matted human hair, for that matter. It is all the same concept. 

Slipper Pieces Pre-felting

Felting can be a little tricky. Felting shrinks the material, can be a little unpredictable, and is not reversible. This causes me to admire the good people who write patterns involving felting.


Despite these things, the actual process of felting is not difficult. You start by creating your knitting. It usually looks pretty loose, big, and floppy. At best, pre-felted pieces bear a distant resemblance to the desired finished product, and the fact that felting shrinks the pieces more lengthwise than width wise often creates an awkward looking project.


Then, you take your precious knitting and load it into a pillowcase (I use a zippered one). Close up the top.



Prepare your washing machine for felting. You want to set the water temperature to hot, select the lowest possible water level and add some materials to create friction, some people use tennis balls, some use jeans, I usually use towels. Add a small amount of detergent, and start the machine. Take a deep breath and toss the knitting into the machine.



Once the machine starts to agitate, check on the progress frequently. I usually check somewhere between five and ten minutes. Checking this often gets annoying, but it you shrink your item too far, it cannot be undone.


Don't let the machine go into the spin cycle, you'll end up with creases in your project. Depending on how long the process is taking, you might need to restart the agitation cycle. 


Once the felting has completed, take the pieces out of the pillowcase and rinse them in cold water. Stretch the pieces into the desired shapes and set them out to dry. To get the slippers into a good shape, I used newspapers and the plastic inserts that store put into shoes to help them keep their shape. Let the pieces dry, which depending on the humidity, can take up to several days.


Enjoy the finished result and smirk because you've learned another knitting technique.

Inventory

Fall is here and winter is on its way! This is extremely good news for me, seeing as I hate summer (I can see my friend Emily shaking her head at this, she's a summertime girl). I'm thrilled to see the arrival of cooler weather, and the return of cool weather knitting.


For those non-knitters, the idea that there is summertime knitting and wintertime knitting most likely seems odd. But consider this, when it is 90 degrees outside, do you really want to have a wool sweater in your lap? Yeah, I didn't think so. Summer is a great time to work on things like socks and lace or projects made of lighter yarns, like cotton or linen. Currently, I'm trying to finish the Hey Teach! Cardigan, which is a great summer project. A short-sleeved, half lace, cotton cardigan. I've finished the back, and am almost done with the right front, so I should be done soon.


This means that I can start on some winter projects. Yesterday, I flipped through some patterns on Ravelry, and found a bunch of things that I would like to make. Then, I started to look for yarns to go with them, but I remembered that I was trying to use up some of my stash. However, I cannot remember what I have in the stash, and if I have yarn assigned to a project or not. 


I've used the stash feature on Ravelry awhile ago, but by now I only have odds and ends in there, and I cannot be sure that the yarn I have listed is at all accurate. This led me to spend about an hour today redoing the stash list. At least I have the yarn mostly organized by weight and all the skeins of the same color grouped together. This made the process a lot easier.


I wrote down the type of yarn, colorway, and number of skeins. I also made notes if I have the yarn planned for any project. Then I entered the info into the Ravelry database. Tada! I now have a list that I can reference when browsing patterns.


Time to start planning my winter knitting.

Photo Shoot for After Hours Shawl

I've been toying with the idea of doing lace for some time now. I've even gone as far as to cast on, knit a bit, and then get discouraged and give up. So, I thought a Knit-A-Long (KAL) might just be the way to get one done.

One of my favorite places to order sock yarn, Knitter's Brewing Company, sponsored a KAL for a lace shawl to showcase their newest yarn. I immediately decided to join, the KAL officially begins today, September 1. But I got a bit of a head start.



Yup, that is a completed lace shawl, with a beaded border.



Now, we have just moved. At the old house, I had my go-to places where I knew I could get good photos of my knitting. Now, I have to invest some time into finding new locations for my projects. First, I tired the back deck...



Not too bad, the color came out great, but I thought that a solid background might be better for the lacework, so I tried some on the grass. Those didn't turn out at all. I tried the ladder leading up to the playhouse, but the lace didn't show up at all (this is, however the spot where I got the lovely close up of the border, which is the closest to the yarn's true color). Then I tried the front porch, same problem.

Finally, I headed back inside and took some using a plain, black background...

The black worked well for showing off the stitch detail, but the color seems kind of washed out in it. And what's with the orb in the picture? It showed up in every inside picture I took of the shawl. Perhaps we have a ghost that really likes my knitting (I could live with that). Eventually, I came to the conclusion that lace work is trick to photograph, and I'd have to just keep trying.

On another note, I'm giving myself a pass on the August socks for my pair a month club, I've been busy moving and unpacking. This year I'll settle for 11 pairs in 12 months and call it good. I'll try to squeeze in extra pair in the next four months, but I'm not sure if I'll manage that or not. Time will tell.

Whew! And Home Updates.

I sat down today to look at my blog, and realized that it has been over a month since I last posted. This has been a rough summer for blogging. Now, things are slowing down a bit, so I'm going to make an effort to stay caught up on my blogging.


The main reason for the lack of posts is this...












our first home! Husband and I had been talking about and playing around with the idea of buying a house for sometime. We spent time prowling the  real estate websites, looking for the perfect place.

We had a pretty long list of both "needs" and "wants" including 3 or more bedrooms, 2 or more baths, all the bedrooms on the same floor, either newer construction or remodeled  (husband and I are not the "fixer upper" types), central air, dishwasher, good yard, quiet street, etc. Then this place was posted. It's an old farmhouse, but has been completely redone inside and out. And it was pretty much love at first sight for us. Then we noticed this in one of the 


website photos. (Check out the refrigerator magnets) It appeared that the fates were telling us to buy this house (upon closer inspection, I was unable to tell if the magnets actually did spell out CRAM or CBAM, but either way, it's a pretty good coincidence. Plus , as an added bonus, it met almost all of the requirements on the list. 


So then began the process of making offers, applying for loans, home inspections, loan underwriting, and closing. 

However, after all that hassle, we moved into our first house at the beginning of August. Moving was fairly uneventful, except for the box spring not fitting up the stairs. Thankfully, a family friend was able to take it apart and reassemble the box spring upstairs. We've been busy unpacking and cleaning up the house we had been renting (turned in the keys to that place yesterday). It has been a lot of work, with plenty of work still left to do, but it all has been worth it. 

Steps to Blocking

The frock camisole is done! It is currently drying on my blocking board, where I am hoping it will block out a little longer.

If you are not a knitter, (and even if you are) you may be wondering what blocking is. It is the final step in finishing a knitting project. Well, most knit projects, blocking only really works with natural fibers (those from plants (linen, bamboo, cotton, hemp) and those from animals (wool, silk), man made stuff doesn't really block out.

Anyways, blocking is the process of shaping the finished piece into the desired shape. This looks different depending on the fiber used. For example, you can take a wool sweater, dunk it in water and tug and pull to your heart's content and really control the finished product (this will work with a purchased wool sweater too), but cotton is more delicate when wet, so the process is different. At any rate the usual blocking process involves wetting the knitting (dunking, spraying, steaming), pulling and pushing, and pinning it into the desired shape and letting it dry.

However, here are my steps for blocking the frock camisole.

1. Wash the tank in Woolite. Rinse out the tank and lay on a towel.
2. Roll up the towel and toss into the washing machine, turn it to the spin cycle (this spins out the extra water without damaging the fabric).
3. While the piece is spinning, get out the blocking board, remove the build up of cat hair from the board.
4. Remove tank from washer and start shaping it onto board.
5. Curse when you realize that the blocking pins are not in the bag with the blocking board. Proceed to search the house and find the pins on the dining room table.
6. Pin down the front yolk of the tank, and decide the let the rest of the front hang and dry, since it is supposed to be drapey and you are hoping that gravity will do the stretching for you.
7. Start to pin down the straps, curse again when you realize the you twisted one of the straps when you attached get. Get the scissors.
8. Curse more aggressively when you realize that instead of removing the stitches attaching the strap, you really cut the first row of knitting.
9. Run around like crazy to find a needle and thread to stop the unraveling.
10. Finishing pinning the straps, pin the back yolk.
11. Let the piece dry while at work, plan on fixing the strap snafu later.
12. Sigh and reflect upon your own stupidity.

The Halfway Point

I'm pleased to say that my June socks are finished, with days to spare. And they turned out quite lovely.

I am even more pleased to remind everyone that June is the sixth month of the year, meaning I have now completed six pairs of socks in six months. I'm halfway to my goal for the year. And here are all six pairs...

The socks are in chronological order if you go around the circle clockwise starting at the top. They have made a nice addition to my sock drawer (which seems silly right now, as it is summer and I don't wear socks, unless it cannot be helped, but it will be nice next fall and winter).

As much as I would like to sit and celebrate, I decided to start on my July socks. To mark the beginning of the second half of this project, I am going to attempt to make knee socks (I think).  So far, I have the foot of one started, I'm just doing a basic toe-up sock, in a self-striping yarn from Knit Picks.

If the color combination looks at all familiar to you, we defiantly should be friends. The colorway is called "Time Traveler" and is based on the famous Doctor Who Scarf.

For those who have no idea what I'm going on about, I'll explain. I'm a fan of the British television series Doctor Who, which is about a time traveling alien known only as "the Doctor." The series started back in 1963 and ran until 1989 and was revived again in 2005 and is currently on (you really should check it out).  Back in the 1960's, when the original Doctor, William Hartnell left the show, the idea that the Doctor could regenerate was introduced. Regeneration where the Doctor takes on a new physical appearance, some new personality traits, but is still, the Doctor (odd? perhaps, but it's scifi, you either buy it, or you don't).

Since the show's creation, 11 different actors have played the Doctor. When Tom Baker, the fourth actor to play the doctor started, a scarf was knitted for the character by one the custom designers. It is a pretty spectacular piece of knitting, measuring about 20 feet long. The scarf has since become somewhat of an icon for Doctor Who fans (or at least those of us who knit...there's more out there then you'd think).

Anyways, the colors in the stripes of this yarn are inspired by the colors in the original scarf.

Slow and Steady

Progress on the Yggdrasil Blanket has been continuous, but not swift. However the time constraint on the blanket has been lifted. The blanket was originally going to be a wedding present for a dear friend, who is now no longer getting married. I'm trying to keep motivated on the project, though. I don't want to set it aside, get distracted by other things, and find it six months from now crumpled into a ball with the needles pulled halfway out.


I've completed the center panel of trees.

There are four of those trees that all connect at the branches...or roots, depending on your perspective. After the tree panel, comes the first braid border. The border is knit perpendicular to the tree panel and connected by knitting together a border stitch with a center panel stitch.  The border itself is a series of braided cables. that I have had to watch pretty closely to keep mistakes at bay.



As you can see, I've gotten all the way across on side, around the corner and am starting on the next side. The corner itself was a bit tricky. It is done by using short rows. Combining short rows and cables is a tough task, especially since I'm a leftie and have to flip the cables around in my head. So the first corner is not completely mistake free, but I'm hoping that the mistakes are less noticeable than I think they are.

At least that is what I'm counting on.


I've also been putting in some knitting hours on the Frock Camisole. It is hard to capture in pictures how it is turning out.


It looks pretty boxy, but the tank is designed to be very floaty and drapey. The yarn drapes beautifully, which can't be seen in this picture...I'll try to get some pictures of it hanging next time and see if that helps. It is also hard to see the sheen and color of the yarn. The yarn is brown, but two-toned and the addition of silk gives it a nice sheen. The yarn has been awesome to work with.


I have also caught up on my socks. The first of my June socks is now finished and I'll be starting on the next one really soon. I'm hoping I'll be able to get the second sock completed by the end of the month, so I can stay on track.

Nutkin V. Nutkin

The May socks have been finished in a timely manner, just not photographed and blogged about until now. 

They turned out quite lovely if I do say so myself. This was the second time that I created socks using this pattern, Nutkin.


These are the original Nutkins, which turned out very lovely as well. I absolutely love how the yarn and pattern work together on this pair. I was pleased, but not as enthralled with the color/pattern combination on the second pair of Nutkins.


However, the Nutkin pattern is not terribly stretchy, so the first pair didn't go on very smoothly. I really had to yank to get the sock over my heel. It was a lot of work, too much work for a pair of socks, no matter how cute. When making the second pair, I used a half-size bigger needles, which gave me a little more room to pull the socks on and off.


Another problem with the original socks was the cuff. The pattern called for a fold-over cuff. Again, not very stretchy, so I replaced it with a ribbed cuff, which also helped with the fit.

While on the subject of socks, I'm lagging a bit behind on my June socks. Today is the 15th, so technically I should be finished with the first sock. I'm about halfway down the foot, about 3/4 finished with the completed sock, so I'm not too far behind.


June's sock is knitted in a handdyed sock yarn I bought on Etsy. It is a mixture of yellow, purple, and brown. The pattern is called Petunia Dursley's Double Eyelet Sock, an one of the many Harry Potter inspired sock patterns that can be found. It's a pretty simple pattern, easy to memorize to the point of being almost boring, which may be why I'm lagging behind on the knitting. However, I am determined to finish these by the end of June, as that will make 6 pairs of socks in 6 months, which is halfway to my goal (and a pretty impressive feat in its own right). 

Scary Stuff

So, I had a bit of a scare last week. I'm not sure that it is entirely over, but the worst of it is (I hope). Last Tuesday, I go in for my yearly eye exam. No biggie, I've been wearing glasses since I was in 7th grade, and I've been seeing this particular doctor for the past 13 years, so there should be no surprises.

Well, the doctor is looking at my eyes, and starts to furrow his brow and looks again, they consults my chart and looks more concerned. Then he asks if I have had any problems with blurred vision, headaches, blackouts, stuff like that. No, no more than normal. I suffered from the occasional migraine and I sometimes get headaches, everyone does (I"m actually getting over a doozie of a headache right now, a regular headache, not a migraine. I'm not one of those  people that thinks every headache, or even every bad headache is a migraine. That drives me crazy, migraines are a specific medical condition, but I digress). So doctor takes another look at my eyes, another look at my chart, and asks again about problems with headaches, etc. 

He tells me that my optic nerves are doing something they shouldn't. They stick up, or are swollen, or enlarged...something along those lines. That is usually caused by an increase in pressure inside your cranium, like a brain tumor might cause. 

Brain tumor? Sweet Jesus (that may just be a direct quote). However, since I don't have any of the other symptoms, he's not sure what is going on (which is always a reassuring thing to hear from your doctor). So, he's going to take some pictures and scans and send them into a specialist. In the meantime, I shouldn't worry. Right, because this isn't something to worry about.

So, two excruciating days later, Eye Doctor calls, he's consulted with a couple of other doctors and this is something that they should look into. Really? Thanks for that super piece of doctoring. So eye doctor is going to pass my chart along to the internist and someone from his office will be in contact with me. 

Not very much later, a nurse from internist's office calls, they've schedule a CT scan for that afternoon. They'll look at what that shows and make a decision on what further tests that I need from that point. So, now I'm really worried, things are moving fast, and things never more fast in the medical field unless something serious is going on. But let's get this over with, I go and get the scan.

Of course, the guy running the machine can't tell me anything, except that the radiologist is done for the day (honestly, it's 2 p.m, and he's done for the day?) and he'll be in from 8 to noon tomorrow morning and will read the scan the next day (okay, off by 2 one day, and four hours the next day...not bad working hours). So more pacing and waiting. Pacing and waiting.

I get the call the next day around noon. There was nothing unusual on the scan, but nurse is not sure what the next step will be because they want to consult with Eye Doctor again. And Eye Doctor is in Canada for the next week. Awesome, so something is causing my optic nerves to be wonky and we don't know what it is, but I should just sit tight while Dr. is on a fishing trip.

So the good news is, I don't have a giant tumor in my brain. However, there may or may not be invasive neurological tests on the horizon. Will keep posting updates as they occur.

Deep Breath and Move On

On most days, subbing is a crap shoot. You never really know what kind of class you're walking into, what kind of mood the students will be in, and what sort of sub plans the teacher has left for you. It is an adventure to walk into the classroom. Every class is different, some will wait patiently while you try to figure out what is going on, and some will attempt to set the building on fire while waiting.

The third grade class I subbed for on Wednesday was much closer to the latter. I try to arrive early to be prepared, but there are always some start of the day things that pop up. The first couple of activities were rough, but I've learned to just preserver until the students go out for recess or to a special to regroup. Which is what is did. Knowing that this class didn't have much tolerance for down time, I made sure that everything was laid out to get me through until lunch time, the class came back, and SHAZAAM things went much better for the remainder of the day.  But by much better, I still had a class that:

• about a third of the students requested to go to the office for "upset tummies," later, I found out that this school has a policy of giving mints to students with upset stomachs...maybe not the best plan, office ladies

• a student that requested to call home about 10 different times (and seriously, 10 is a conservative estimate), and on at least 2 separate occasions, I caught trying to make a phone call after being told no (and no, I'm not a meanie, there was a note from the teacher that she's a chronic home caller, to the point where the parents say not to let her call)

• another student that had a mysterious aliment causing her eyes to blur whenever she was required to do work, but be fine any other time

• a student attempting to use a 2 foot pencil for the entire day (okay, that one was pretty entertaining).

Ah, subbing, there is no job in the world quite like it.

On the job front, the job search is becoming discouraging. For a short time, there were jobs being posted everyday. Not always for this area, but still jobs. Now that is slowing down, and I've gotten a couple of "Thanks, but no thanks" letters from school districts this week. It is getting pretty tough not to get down about the job hunt, especially when lots of well meaning people ask about interviews and point out vacancies. It's tough to put on the happy face and keep telling people, "Nope, no real prospects, and thanks I've applied for that, but haven't heard anything." Perhaps, I just need a distraction from all of this...

Better Late than Never

The April socks are completed. Don't mind the fact that they were not finished until May 10, but they are now finished. 

Mad Colorweave Socks in Dirty Martini by Knitters Brew Company. They turned out pretty cute, I especially like the mini-cables that run down the sides. They are pretty similar to the Paul and Virginia socks I did a couple of months ago, I think in February, but the cables give them a different look.

I've also started my May socks, a little late, but they are started. Now, my May socks are a bit of a deviation from the self-imposed sock club. I discovered the yarn during the stash reorganization, and knew I had to make it into socks. The yarn is Tosh Socks by Madelinetosh in the colorway, Frida (a combination of pink, orange, blue, and green).

I started the socks in a pattern called Padfoot, but I didn't like how the colors were pooling, so I ripped it out (ripping out projects seems to be a common occurrence in this household). I started them again in the Nutkin pattern. I've made the Nutkins before and was pretty happy with how they turned out. This time I'm making a brief modification, changing the cuff.

So far, so good. Tomorrow is the 15th, so technically I should be finished with the first sock to stay on target, but I don't think it is going to happen. Luckily, my cousin gets married tomorrow in Marshfield, so I will have a couple of hours of knit time in the car over the next few days, which is good.  Hopefully, I'll be able to make good time over the next couple of weeks and get caught up.

Job Search

So, I've been done with student teaching for almost three months now (hard to believe!). And I've gotten pretty comfortable with the subbing groove. Don't get me wrong, subbing is a great gig, and I love getting to peek into all of the different classrooms. However, I'm at that point where I would like a full (or part) time job for next year. I'd like to have the promise of income, benefits, etc. I'd also like to be able to go to bed each night knowing whether or not I will be working the next day. And, I'd like to work with the same group of students so that I could build relationships and perhaps make a difference. 

The job market, however, is a little discouraging. People are full of stories about district cutbacks, teacher layoffs, and the ever helpful story about a niece, cousin, dog's next door neighbor's son's wife, etc that has a degree in Special Ed and has been looking for a job for the last three years and cannot find one (always an upper, thanks for that). 

I'm trying to stay positive. I know that schools are beginning to post vacancies, and new ones are showing up every day. I check those listings several times a day, I tune into all the rumors about districts that are and might be hiring, and I'm applying for every job that is posted within an hour and a half from here.

The applications themselves are daunting. They should have had a class on what to expect from a district application. At least five open answer questions about discipline, lesson planning, students, educational philosophy, IEPs, transition, differentiated instruction, behavior management, and theories of education, more than one that I've had to google. (And not to sound snotty, but seriously, if in four years of teacher training at one of the best teacher training colleges in the Midwest, I didn't come across the theory, not even a mention of it, can it really be that important? I've spent hours flipping through binders from classes, looking for materials to include in my portfolio.

My interview clothes are hanging up and ready to go. I'm tweaking my professional portfolio and studying interview questions. I'm waiting for that phone to ring, and it sits silent.

It cheers me a little that I've yet to apply for a job that I'm super excited for. I've applied for some good jobs, but nothing that makes me think, "man, I have to get this job." I know I just have to be patient and wait...and wait...and wait...

Maybe I'll go check the postings another time.

An Omen of Doom?

So I casted on for the Yggdrasil Blanket, a wedding gift for a dear, dear friend. I've been worrying that the project is too big, too complicated, or too hard for me to complete in time, but I figured that I would never know until I tried.

I sat myself down on the couch, with my yarn, needles, and pattern. the cast on method was one that I had never done before, but I read the directions carefully, reversed them to meet my left-handed needs and gave it a go...and failed.

So, I took a deep breath, re-read the directions and tried again...another fail.

Well, maybe I was making a mistake while reversing the directions. Now, I can knit both right and left handedly (though I'm pretty sure that handedly is not a word), I'm just much more comfortable and faster knitting left handed, but no matter, I'll just cast on with my right hand and do it that way. I re-read the directions one more time, took another breath...and failed.

Okay, at this point, I'm forced to admit there is a problem, so I got up, switched the laundry and cracked open a diet coke. Now my head is cleared, and the whites are in the dryer (important as husband informed me this morning he needs some clean socks) and I have some caffeine, I can do this. This time, I manage to get yarn onto the needles and it looks sort of like what it is supposed to, but I'm not convinced that it is correct.  Time to head to the internet for some advice.

After about ten minutes of research I find a less complicated cast on that seems to serve the same purpose. I give it a go and...presto! The yarn is on the needles and looks like it is supposed to. I do a little happy dance and knit a couple of rows.

Now, while knitting I'm beginning to worry that I may be in over my head. This feeling increases when I go to enter the project into Ravelry, where suggested tags include "lock-me-up-in-the-looney-bin," "biting-off-more-than-I-can-chew," "in-over-my-head," and "I-hope-to-finish-before-I-die."

This may be the point in the movie where everybody knows the hero should just turn back now, get a massage and live to fight another day, but the hero stupidly plods onward into danger. Let's hope I can emerge victorious.

More Tales of Yarn Organization

Keeping my yarn neat, organized, and safe from my cats is a constant struggle. I keep trying new things in hopes that this one will be the magical solution I've been hoping for. My latest endeavor is a combination of tactics. I have the bags with sock yarn and patterns from my sock of the month club, which is working out nicely. Then I have some similarly packaged yarn and patterns on the other half of my old toy box (which works great, the cats happily sleep away on the toy box with no idea that yarn is stashed safely inside). This is for yarns that have assigned projects (the FLS, the Hey Teach! cardigan, and another cardigan). While this system was working, I still had to figure out something for my yarns that were not assigned to specific projects.


My previous system was apple boxes from the grocery store where I work. Anyone with experience with apple boxes knows that these are among the premier boxes you can hope to obtain when getting boxes from the grocery store (egg boxes are pretty good too, in case you were wondering, or planning to move sometime, ask specifically for apple boxes and egg boxes, trust me on this one). However, I just tossed yarn in the boxes and forgot about it, which made it extremely unlikely that it would ever get used.


While at the in-laws, I came across several of the big, plastic things that sheets, and other bedding comes in. You know, they are like boxes, but made out of plastic and with zippers. The in-laws had recently purchased some new bedding for the rental villa that they own, and had four of those. I added that to the one I had from a recently purchased mattress pad.

After stashing the yarns that had already been assigned projects, I sorted the rest by weight, making separate piles for worsted, sport, dk, fingering (non-sock), and lace yarns. Each was placed in one of the bags, and labeled with the weight of the yarn.


It works pretty well, the bags are clear, so I can see what is inside of each one, and they are stackable for easy storage.

However, the yarn was not nearly as safe as I had hoped. Someone already managed to chew a hole in the side of the lace weight yarn (and of course, the lace weight, the easiest to tangle and biggest pain to untangle). But since these bags should be stacked in the closet, with the door shut, this should not be a huge problem. I'll patch the hole with some packing tape, and see how that goes.

This project brought about another boon too. While digging through the yarn boxes, I discovered a stash of worsted weight golden brown yarn that will be prefect for a project that I'm planning. (and yes, for those who are wondering, that is Vanna White on the yarn labels, she's an avid crocheter and has her own line of yarns through Lion Brand).





I'm making an afghan for one of my oldest friends as a wedding gift. I want to make the Yggdrasil Blanket, by Lisa Jacobs. It is a wonderfully complex pattern with lots of cabling (which most likely makes poor husband shudder when remembering the string of profanities that came out of my mouth the last time I made a cabled afghan). The tree motif reminds me of this particular friend, who is very outdoorsy. 

As luck would have it, the yarn is very close to the color that I was planning on buying for this project. And, it is an acrylic yarn, which personally, I'm not overly fond of (I prefer natural fibers), but acrylic is durable and machine washable, two things which make it great for this particular friend, who bless her heart, I cannot imagine that girl hand-washing a blanket. The wedding isn't until the end of October, but I want to get started right away so I can work on it at my leisure, in between other projects.

Hey, Hey, We're the Monkies

See these beauties?



Yup, they are my March socks, completed. And it is only the 23 of March, meaning I've finished the socks with 8 days to spare! Woo-hoo for me! The pattern is Monkey, by Cookie A, and the yarn is a colorway called Babel Fish (Inspired by Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) hand-dyed by BunkyBoBo.

While I've casted on for the April socks, in a colorway called Dirty Martini, but I'm going to spend more of my knitting time focusing instead on finishing my Lotus Blossom tank. I tend to get so focused on the monthly socks that the tank gets a little neglected. I've also built up enough of a stash of scrap sock yarn to add some more squares to my scrap blanket. But I had to start the socks, since they make the perfect "to go" project.



Here's the yarn for the April socks, by Knitters Brewing Company, but the photo doesn't do justice to the colors. I'm using the Mad Color Weave Pattern.

Speaking of "to go" projects, awhile ago, I got some project bags from Ravelry, which I am loving! They show the knitting process, from sheep to sock. They work great for toting around projects in my lovely purse/knitting bag.

Art Review: The Many Faces of Mrs. Cram

I never really realized that when I entered the teaching profession, I was volunteering myself as a model for budding young artists. But this is another surprising facet of being a teacher. So here are three of the works of art that I have received during this school year.

Exhibit A:

This is a lovely piece created by A, one of my kindergarten students from first quarter of student teaching. The artwork was done in marker on a piece of printer paper, if you look closely, you actually can see a line of symbols that the printer spat out for no apparent reason. Considering the artist, I'm lucky that I have two eyes, a nose, a body, one leg, and arms (even though they seem to be growing out of my head, maybe there not arms, maybe they are ears). This particular artist was a 5 year old with cognitive disabilities whose IEP goals include drawing a person with at least 10 recognizable body parts (and he was at 7 at this point so, not bad).

Now we will move on,

Exhibit B:

This piece was completed by C, one of my seventh grade homeroom students from my second quarter of student teaching. It was completed in pencil on card stock.As you can see, this particular work contains an increased level of detail, down to the heels of my shoes, and the button on my pants. However, I'm a little concerned about the size of my head (and neck) in comparison to the rest of my body and the mutilation of my hand.

Exhibit C:

Completed J, one of the fifth graders that I subbed for today. Also in pencil on card stock. Note again, the increased detail, including the cover of the book (and that's a balloon, not a sperm, in case you are wondering. This particular drawing also has the most realistic depiction of my current hairstyle, though I feel it portrays me as an angry, evil-looking, ogre, similar to the sub in Miss Nelson is Missing.

I wonder if Lisa (of the Mona Lisa fame) ever felt like this?